In all seriousness, I spent the better part of today hating writing. I woke up and struggled my way through the opening of Chapter 23 (that's 70 for the Figment people), and hated every second of it. I hated writing the words. I hated the words I wrote.

Then I had to take a hard call, and then I went back to writing the words. But I forced myself to sit in front of my computer and keep pushing the sentences along because when I feel myself getting stuck, the worst thing I can do is stop. Then I'll be stuck for days.

Oh my God it's a baby chinchilla stuck in a glass

All I knew was that Asuka had to get the f%&* off the mountaintop so she could meet Kouji. Then I finally got Asuka off the mountain.

Then I was like, err... What is supposed to happen here?

At this point, I'm going to put in the obligatory spoiler warning. If you haven't read anything new from the past twelve hours, you have no place here. Go away.

I wrote a beginning, middle and end, sketched in dialogue:

Which made this scene a little less scary, but there were still a lot of blank spaces. As you people who are up to date know, Asuka finishes Chapter 23 (72) by healing Boroke with her newly discovered powers. Kouji is a kind of emotional block. When he is cleared, in the ensuing emotional turmoil, she's able to piece together the secret to uprooting disease spirits and how she might be special.

By the way, the moment that hit me hardest in this chapter was actually when Kouji didn't get to admit that he went into the mountains to commit suicide.

By the end of his confession about his role in the destruction of the hiwau's country, it didn't matter how much I loved him — I love Kouji a lot — having him say that he played a direct role in bringing the priests and that his family planned to have the gods become angry... It's one of those things that's bad in my head, but I don't realize how awful it is until I'm putting down the words.

But having him admit how much it ate at him, how he failed to justify it to himself... And that his suicide fails and then he dies at the hands of Mogasa. (God, so help me if you people ignored the spoiler reading and you got this far.) It's doubly awful because he knows the hiwau has feelings for him.

Even more exponentially awful because he played a role in the plot that's killed Asuka's father.

But that his regrets almost killed him, in a way they did end up getting him killed, and ah, I can't. AND YOU KNOW WHAT? He's NINETEEN. He's Asuka's age. His family told him to do something and he did it, and... I can't.

... then she went Super Saiyan.

But seriously, she goes Super Saiyan.

... and she rips the disease right out of Boroke's body. I'm really counting on the readers with low counts on the Weird-o-Meter having dropped out around the middle of the first saga when we killed the horse. I mean, Lord Shinrusu killed the horse. So, no one will be like, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T DISEASES AREN'T BAD SPIRITS."

I'll just throw my juicy box and declare in my loudest voice "YES I CAN BECAUSE I SAY SO AND I WROTE IT."

You're welcome.

If I don't put the goofy stuff in here, I'll get really depressed. Like, also, it wasn't important in the grand scheme of things, but no one's probably going to tell Asuka about the hiwau...

It's funny because Kouji is High Shaman of the Moon God (how have I not looked at Avatar gifs until now?)

Who's going to tell the hiwau? Seriously. I have no idea and I'm writing this thing. Maybe him and Asuka can be oblivious to the death of his unrequited love. The Real Death. (Not just the rejection.)

So Asuka can view illness spiritually personified and defeat it. I guess that's the big update?

We'll be bouncing back to Chirikai soon enough. Really, I like to keep to one emotional crisis per chapter. Any more than that and I start to worry that it's becoming melodramatic.

When a classical dancer by day —and secret doctor by night—starts asking questions about a strange patient, she's entangled in a conspiracy threatening her floating city. With revolvers and flying horses, cloud-wearing monsters.